Sara and Andrew; “change from the inside”

In Disney Pixar’s movie “Inside Out,” the protagonist, Riley, moves to San Francisco with her parents, turning her world upside down. At first, her emotions disagree about how to handle this change; however, the emotions learn to embrace their differences to help Riley adapt into this new town. They realize that their differences are their greatest strength. This powerful message was a part of the inspiration for our campaign motto, #gtinsideout. The idea of working from the inside out is how we plan to institute a positive cultural change on campus and how we plan on celebrating our differences as an Institute. By using our experiences and interactions with the entire student body, we can represent your interests and make real changes through avenues that have not been utilized in the past.

It’s true — we do not have more SGA experience than other tickets. But we aren’t running from that; we are embracing it. We know the procedural structures and guidelines of the organization, and we believe we can bring a new perspective to an organization that does things the same way every year.

We plan to advance the organization by using existing resources and foundations, but also implementing new ones where there is void, to tackle campus issues in a more comprehensive manner. It is not just a question of athletes versus non-athletes, Greek versus non-Greek, mental health resources versus the lack thereof, etc. that we should be contemplating, but how multiple aspects of student life interact to create the student experience at Tech. In our platform, we pay special attention to where wellness, transparency and campus communities overlap. We want to address these issues at their roots with the complex solutions they need, instead of sticking a temporary band aid over the situation. This is why our platform includes specific and tangible action items that we can accomplish to take steps toward progress. We hope tolay the foundation for a positive culture change at Georgia Tech. This doesn’t happen overnight, and we recognize that. But we can begin now by making some changes on our campus that will have an even longer-lasting impact for future generations of Yellow Jackets.

We are so excited to be running for Student Body President and Vice President. We hope to represent you, the entirety of the student body, and facilitate the changes and tackle the problems you are passionate about during our time in SGA. We plan to use our experiences in leadership and involvement from all over campus to tackle SGA from a new perspective that hasn’t been done in the past.

We love Georgia Tech and our Yellow Jacket community, but we also realize that there are problems or struggles that our campus faces that we can tackle. Join us in our journey to embrace everything this Institute has to offer. Let’s make Georgia Tech even better, from the inside out.